The Game of Love
by mannequin doll
Summary: CB, NB, NS. "I promised I wouldn't tell anyone, but I guess I can trust you." Blair Waldorf’s life is based on the dangerous game of love.


**The Game of Love**

"_I promised I wouldn't tell anyone, but I guess I can trust you."_

**Disclaimer:**All characters owned by The CW and Josh Schwartz._  
_**Rating:**PG-13  
**Summary: **Blair Waldorf's life is based on the dangerous game of love. Kind of humor, kind of drama. CB, NB, NS. It's kind of confusing and all over the place, but I hope you like it!

* * *

When they were ten years old and in the middle of their last year of elementary school, Serena van der Woodsen came up with a new game she had heard was being played by every girl in the elite junior high they'd be entering next year.

Blair Waldorf looked on uninterestedly when Serena brought this topic up. "It's really cool, B," Serena promised earnestly, her long blonde hair flying in wisps behind her as she pleaded with her best friend.

Blair shook out her brown curls and sighed. "You have my attention," she said with a roll of her eyes.

Serena smiled, satisfied. "It's called MASH, and you write down the names of boys, jobs, cars and other stuff for the future. Someone draws a circle and you count all the lines or something like that," she began with a shake of her head confusedly. "Oh, yeah! And then, you count from the M to all the names and stuff until you land on the number of lines, and then you start over again. Whatever's left is your future," she smiled brightly, proud of herself.

"And you heard this _where_?" Blair asked exasperatedly, fingering her plaid skirt tucked over leggings.

"The girls from the junior high that I've been hanging out with," Serena reminded her, already taking out a piece of paper from her binder.

"Oh,_those_ girls," Blair said knowingly. Ever since the beginning of the year, Serena had been ditching her for the seventh graders at their future junior high. "Well, this game sounds boring," she uttered.

"It's not! Really, it's so much fun!" Serena exaggerated, pulling out a purple pen to write with.

"I'd rather play with Chuck," Blair pouted, nodding her head over at Chuck Bass and Nate Archibald, who were talking by the swings.

Serena wrinkled her nose. "Fine. I'll just play with Jenny then," she said defiantly, about to make her way over to the third grader who was always asking them to join her to eat lunch.

Blair relented far quicker than she would've liked. "Fine, I'll play," she exclaimed, tugging Serena's arm back to where they were sitting outside.

Serena grinned excitedly, placing the loose leaf on the table and beginning to outline the game. "What's MASH stand for, anyway?" Blair asked.

"Mansion, Apartment, Streets and House," Serena said nonchalantly as she continued to head the paper.

"Okay, name three guys you like," Serena told her friend, glancing up at her expectantly.

Blair's cheeks flushed as she fidgeted with her hands, taking great notice in her manicured pink fingernails. "Um, I don't know."

Serena rolled her eyes. "I'll pick for you, then," she said with a giggle. "Nate," she stated as she wrote it down, looking over at the blonde boy a few yards away. "Chuck," she continued, although Blair assumed she was just putting him down to make Blair's cheeks redden even more.

"Hmm. Who else?" Serena tapped the pen against her chin as if in deep thought. She suddenly furiously began writing a name down with an evil glint in her eye. "And Dan Humphrey," she finished with a grin, glancing at the shy, dark haired boy who was sitting with Jenny.

Blair squealed disgustedly. "Ew! Anyone but him!" she complained, running a hand through her brown locks.

"Too bad," Serena teased. "Now, pick three jobs you like and three cars you want to drive," she told her. "Unless you want me to pick…"

Blair shook her head determinedly, quickly listing her choices. Before she knew it, she was eagerly awaiting the results as Serena twirled her pen on endlessly. "Okay, stop!" Blair said breathlessly, holding her breath in as Serena began to count.

Hiding the paper from Blair, which was not an easy task, Serena raised her eyebrows at the outcome. "Ready?"

"Yes, just get on with it!" Blair replied, swatting her best friend on the arm lightly.

Serena tried to stifle a giggle. "Okay. You're going to live in a house, drive a Mercedes, become a movie director and marry Nate!" she squealed out the last part.

Blair's mouth dropped open. "Nate?" she questioned, ignoring the rest of whatever Serena had said. She glanced disappointedly at where Nate and Chuck were now playing tag near the swings.

Serena smiled giddily. "Oh, you totally love him!" she exclaimed, bringing her friend into an excited hug.

Blair grinned, looking at the piece of paper in Serena's hand that apparently determined her future.

Glancing over at the blonde boy again, she thinks she wouldn't mind living in a house, driving a Mercedes, directing her own movie and marrying Nate Archibald. And from that day on, she makes sure nothing will ever stop her from achieving it.

* * *

Six years later, and more topics had been added to MASH, like "Amount of Sex a Week" and "How Many Kids You'll Have" and the list went on and on. But six years later, Blair Waldorf doesn't believe in stupid games like MASH anymore. Not since Nathaniel Archibald broke her heart for the final time.

Serena van der Woodsen is as flighty as ever, and Blair thinks that maybe it all started back with that game six years prior. Serena had been quick to bring up Nate's name first, and Blair remembers the quirky, almost disappointed eyebrow raise that Serena gave when she saw Blair's supposed "future".

Blair wants to throw up for the first time in a long time when Nate tells her he slept with Serena, and she almost wishes she had gotten Dan Humphrey as a future husband instead.

Serena's stupid game had missed something, though- it had not told Blair that in the future, her best friend would get up and leave for boarding school, or that her boyfriend would sleep with said best friend the moment she was out of sight.

No, Blair definitely didn't believe in games anymore.

* * *

Blair Waldorf and Nathaniel Archibald are the eternal couple; the couple destined to last forever, because of a stupid game called MASH that ended up breaking far too many hearts than mending them.

They make up and break up until it hurts too much and Blair finally calls it quits, _for real this time_, until even Serena van der Woodsen has stopped believing in the game of love. She doesn't dare tell Blair that at one time, Nate Archibald's name had appeared on Serena's future list.

No, she doesn't dare.

* * *

Seventeen year old Blair Waldorf rolled her eyes one day at a lost picture of Nate and Blair and Serena, the golden trio, when they had spent the day in the Archibald mansion. Underneath the frame, she finds a crumpled piece of loose leaf paper long forgotten.

In Serena's sloppy ten year old writing, a circled Nate glares up at Blair until she can't take it and finally throws it in the trash. She remembers sticking the piece of paper into her coat pocket that day when Nate and Chuck had begun to make their way over to them. Desperate to hide the embarrassing sheet of paper, Blair had hid it in her pocket and later stored it in a once-empty box that was now filled with pictures.

Blair calls up Serena van der Woodsen and ushers her friend over. "Let's play MASH," Blair utters in the first time in such a long time, and Serena's wide smile says it all.

Taking out a crisp, pale blue piece of paper headlined _Blair Waldorf_ at the top, Serena furiously begins planning out the game. Ignoring the more provocative things they had added on once they were in junior high, she writes down only the important headlines they used when they were innocent ten year olds in fifth grade.

She writes down everything exactly as it was, and when she is done and shows Blair the results, Blair smiles confidently and takes the paper. Serena leaves with a knowing grin and Blair picks up her emerald enV once again, dialing another familiar number she's memorized for years.

When Chuck Bass arrives at the Waldorf apartment ten minutes later, Blair smiles secretly at him. "What?" he asks in that lazy, non-committed tone of his.

"I promised I wouldn't tell anyone, but I guess I can trust you," she teases as she hands him the slip of paper that had been in Serena's hands moments before.

Chuck scoffs. "MASH? Jesus, Blair. What are you, ten?" he rolls his eyes before scanning his eyes down the list.

He laughs obnoxiously when he settles his eyes on the largely circled Chuck under the Husband area. "You've got to be kidding me," he smirks.

"MASH doesn't lie," Blair smirks back, shaking her head as she pulls him closer.

And as Chuck Bass kisses her with all the passion she's expected since she first wanted to play with him in the fifth grade, Blair Waldorf thinks that she doesn't mind at all living in a mansion, being driven around in a limousine, starring in a movie and being married to Chuck Bass.

No, she doesn't mind at all.

* * *

When Blair Waldorf is eighteen years old and it is the last day of school at Constance Billiard, she drops a piece of paper on Jenny Humphrey's lunch table.

It's titled MASH, and Blair Waldorf knows better than anyone that it's the most interesting game of love there is.

* * *

**Author's Notes**: Ah, random thought again! Pleaseeee review if you liked, thanks! Cheesy ending? I think so. 


End file.
